aluminum-containing films having an oxygen content within the films. The aluminum-containing film is formed by introducing hydrogen gas along with argon gas into a sputter deposition vacuum chamber during the sputter deposition of aluminum or aluminum alloys onto a semiconductor substrate. The aluminum-containing film so formed is hillock-free and has low resistivity, relatively low roughness compared to pure aluminum, good mechanical strength, and low residual stress.
|
1. A substantially hillock-free film consisting of aluminum having an oxygen content between a trace amount and an amount of 12% (atomic), the trace amount being no more than 0.1% (atomic).
4. A semiconductor device having at least one conductive component formed from a substantially hillock-free film, wherein the substantially hillock-free film consists of aluminum having an oxygen content between a trace amount and an amount of 12% (atomic), the trace amount being no more than 0.1% (atomic).
3. A substantially hillock-free film formed by a method comprising sputter depositing aluminum on a substrate in the presence of hydrogen gas, the substantially hillock-free film consisting of aluminum having an oxygen content of between a trace amount and an amount of 12% (atomic), the trace amount being no more than 0.1% (atomic).
2. The substantially hillock-free film of
5. The semiconductor device of
6. The substantially hillock-free film of
7. The substantially hillock-free film of
8. The substantially hillock-free film of
9. The substantially hillock-free film of
10. The semiconductor device of
11. The semiconductor device of
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/320,431, filed May 26, 1999, now abandoned, which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/177,738, filed Oct. 23, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,194,783 B1, issued Feb. 27, 2001, which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/892,930, filed Jul. 15, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,222,271 B1, issued Apr. 24, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method of sputter deposition of an aluminum-containing film onto a semiconductor substrate, such as a silicon wafer. More particularly, the invention relates to using hydrogen gas with argon during the deposition of aluminum or aluminum alloys to form an aluminum-containing film that is resistant to hillock formation.
2. State of the Art
Thin film structures are becoming prominent in the circuitry components used in integrated circuits (“ICs”) and in active matrix liquid crystal displays (“AMLCDs”). In many applications utilizing thin film structures, low resistivity of metal lines (gate lines and data lines) within those structures is important for high performance. For example, with AMLCDs, low resistivity metal lines minimize RC delay, which results in faster screen refresh rates. Refractory metals, such as chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo), tantalum (Ta), and tungsten (W), have resistances that are too high for use in high performance AMLCDs or ICs. Additionally, the cost of refractory metals is greater than non-refractory metals. From the standpoint of low resistance and cost, aluminum (Al) is a desirable metal. Furthermore, aluminum is advantageous because it forms an oxidized film on its outer surfaces, which protects the aluminum from environmental attack, and aluminum has good adhesion to silicon and silicon compounds.
An aluminum film is usually applied to a semiconductor substrate using sputter deposition. Sputter deposition is generally performed inside the vacuum chamber where a solid slab (called the “target”) of the desired film material, such as aluminum, is mounted and a substrate is located. Argon gas is introduced into the vacuum chamber and an electrical field is applied between the target and the substrate, which strikes a plasma. In the plasma, gases are ionized and accelerated, according to their charge and the applied electrical field, toward the target. As the argon atoms accelerate toward the target, they gain sufficient momentum to knock off or “sputter” atoms and/or molecules from the target's surface upon impact with the target. After sputtering the atoms and/or molecules from the target, the argon ions, the sputtered atoms/molecules, argon atoms and electrons generated by the sputtering process form a plasma region in front of the target before coming to rest on the semiconductor substrate, which is usually positioned below or parallel to the target within the vacuum chamber. However, the sputtered atoms and/or molecules may scatter within the vacuum chamber without contributing to the establishment of the plasma region and thus not deposit on the semiconductor substrate. This problem is at least partly resolved with a “magnetron sputtering system,” which utilizes magnets behind and around the target. These magnets help confine the sputtered material in the plasma region. The magnetron sputtering system also has the advantage of requiring lower pressures in the vacuum chamber than other sputtering systems. Lower pressure within the vacuum chamber contributes to a cleaner deposited film. The magnetron sputtering system also results in a lower target temperature, which is conducive to sputtering of low melt temperature materials, such as aluminum and aluminum alloys.
Although aluminum films have great advantages for use in thin film structures, aluminum has an unfortunate tendency to form defects, called “hillocks.” Hillocks are projections that erupt in response to a state of compressive stress in a metal film and consequently protrude from the metal film surface.
There are two reasons why hillocks are an especially severe problem in aluminum thin films. First, the coefficient of thermal expansion of aluminum (approximately 23.5×10−6/° C.) is almost ten times as large as that of a typical silicon semiconductor substrate (approximately 2.5×10−6/° C.). When the semiconductor substrate is heated during different stages of processing of a semiconductor device, the thin aluminum film, which is strongly adhered to the semiconductor substrate, attempts to expand more than is allowed by the expansion of the semiconductor substrate. The inability of the aluminum film to expand results in the formation of the hillocks to relieve the expansion stresses. The second factor involves the low melting point of aluminum (approximately 660° C.), and the consequent high rate of vacancy diffusion in aluminum films. Hillock growth takes place as a result of a vacancy-diffusion mechanism. Vacancy diffusion occurs as a result of the vacancy-concentration gradient arising from the expansion stresses. Additionally, the rate of diffusion of the aluminum increases very rapidly with increasing temperature. Thus, hillock growth can be described as a mechanism that relieves the compressive stress in the aluminum film through the process of vacancy diffusion away from the hillock site, both through the aluminum grains and along grain boundaries. This mechanism often drives up resistance and may cause open circuits.
A hillock-related problem in thin film structure manufacturing occurs in multilevel thin film structures. In such structures, hillocks cause interlevel shorting when they penetrate or punch through a dielectric layer separating overlying metal lines. This interlevel shorting can result in a failure of the IC or the AMLCD. Such a shorted structure is illustrated in
Numerous techniques have been tried to alleviate the problem of hillock formation, including: adding elements, such as tantalum, cobalt, nickel, or the like, that have a limited solubility in aluminum (however, this generally only reduces but not eliminates hillock formation); depositing a layer of tungsten or titanium on top or below the aluminum film (however, this requires additional processing steps); layering the aluminum films with one or more titanium layers (however, this increases the resistivity of the films); and using hillocks resistant refractory metal films such as tungsten or molybdenum, rather than aluminum (however, as previously mentioned, these refractory metals are not cost effective and have excessive resistivities for use in high performance ICs and AMLCDs).
In particular with AMLCDs, and more particularly with thin film transistor-liquid crystal displays (“TFT-LCDs”), consumer demand is requiring larger screens, higher resolution, and higher contrast. As TFT-LCDs are developed in response to these consumer demands, the need for metal lines that have low resistivity and high resistance to hillock formation becomes critical.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to develop an aluminum-containing material that is resistant to the formation of hillocks and a technique for forming an aluminum-containing film on a semiconductor substrate that is substantially free from hillocks, while using inexpensive, commercially available, widely practiced semiconductor device fabrication techniques and apparatus and without requiring complex processing steps.
The present invention relates to a method of introducing hydrogen gas along with argon gas into a sputter deposition vacuum chamber during the sputter deposition of aluminum or aluminum alloys onto a semiconductor substrate including, but not limited to, glass, quartz, aluminum oxide, silicon, oxides, plastics, or the like, and to the aluminum-containing films resulting therefrom.
The method of the present invention involves using a standard sputter deposition chamber, preferably a magnetron sputter deposition chamber, at a power level of between about 1 and 4 kilowatts (KW) of direct current power applied between a cathode (in this case the aluminum target) and an anode (flat panel display substrate—i.e., soda-lime glass) to create the plasma (after vacuum evacuation of the chamber). The chamber is maintained at a pressure of between about 1.0 and 2.5 millitorr with appropriate amounts of argon gas and hydrogen gas flowing into the chamber. The argon gas is preferably fed at a rate between about 50 and 90 standard cubic centimeters per minute (“sccm”). The hydrogen gas is preferably fed at a rate between about 90 and 600 sccm. The ratio of argon gas to hydrogen gas is preferably between about 1:1 and about 1:6. The films with higher hydrogen/argon ratios exhibited smoother texture. The deposition process is conducted at room temperature (i.e., about 22° C.).
The aluminum-containing films resulting from this method have an average oxygen content between about 1 and 5% (atomic) oxygen in the form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) with the remainder being aluminum. The aluminum-containing films formed under the process parameters described exhibit a color similar to, but slightly darker than, pure aluminum metal. The most compelling attribute of the aluminum-containing films resulting from this method is that they are hillock-free, even after being subjected to thermal stresses.
Although the precise mechanical and/or chemical mechanism for forming these aluminum-containing films is not completely understood, it appears that the hydrogen gas functions in the manner of a catalyst for delivering oxygen into the aluminum-containing films. The oxygen gas comes from residual air within the vacuum chamber remaining after the vacuum chamber has been evacuated. Although the amount of residual oxygen in the air of the evacuated vacuum chamber is small, there is a relatively large percentage of oxygen present in the deposited aluminum-containing films. In experiments by the inventors, oxygen gas was introduced into the vacuum chamber, without any hydrogen gas being introduced (i.e., only oxygen gas and argon gas were introduced). The resulting films deposited on the substrate did not have a measurable amount (by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) of oxygen present.
As stated previously, oxygen is present in the deposited aluminum-containing film in the form of aluminum oxide. However, aluminum oxide is an insulator. It is counter-intuitive to form an insulative compound (which should increase the resistivity of the film) in a film that requires very low resistivity. However, it has been found that the formation of the aluminum oxide does not interrupt the conducting matrix of aluminum grains within the aluminum-containing film. Thus, the resistivity of the aluminum-containing film is surprisingly low.
Aside from being substantially hillock-free and having a low resistivity (i.e., high conductivity), the resultant aluminum-containing films have additional desirable properties including low roughness, low residual stress, and good mechanical strength (as determined by a simple scratch test compared to pure aluminum or by the low compressive stress (between about −5×108 and −1×109 dyne/cm2), which is considered to be an indication of high scratch resistance). Measurements of the aluminum-containing films have shown that the roughness before and after annealing is low compared to pure aluminum (about 600–1300 Å before annealing and 400–1000 Å after annealing). Low roughness prevents stress migration, prevents stress-induced voids, and, consequently, prevents hillock formation. Additionally, low roughness allows for better contact to other thin films and widens the latitude of subsequent processing steps, since less rough films result in less translation of crests and valleys in the film layers deposited thereover, less diffuse reflectivity, which makes photolithography easier, no need to clad the aluminum in the production of AMLCDs (rough aluminum traps charge, which effects electronic performance, that is to say, high or variable capacitance), and more uniform etching.
The mechanical strength of the aluminum-containing films resulting from the process of the present invention is higher than conventionally sputtered thin films of aluminum and some of its alloys. A high mechanical strength results in the resulting aluminum-containing films being resistant to both electromigration and stress induced voiding.
This combination of such properties is superior to that of thin films of aluminum and its alloys that are presently known. These properties make the aluminum-containing films of the present invention desirable for electronic device interconnects. These properties are also desirable in thin films for optics, electro-optics, protective coatings, and ornamental applications.
While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming that which is regarded as the present invention, the advantages of this invention can be more readily ascertained from the following description of the invention when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The method of the present invention preferably involves using a conventional magnetron sputter deposition chamber within the following process parameters:
Power (DC):
between about 1 and 4 KW
Pressure:
between about 1.0 and 2.5 millitorr
Argon Gas Flow Rate:
between about 50 and 90 sccm
Hydrogen Gas Flow Rate:
between about 90 and 600 sccm
Argon:Hydrogen Gas Ratio:
between about 1:1 and 1:6
The operation of the magnetron sputter deposition chamber generally involves applying the direct current power between the cathode (in this case the aluminum target) and the anode (substrate) to create the plasma. The chamber is maintained within the above pressure range and with an appropriate mixture of argon gas and hydrogen gas. The aluminum-containing films resulting from this method have between about a trace amount and 12% (atomic) oxygen in the form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) with the remainder being aluminum.
It is believed that the primary hillock prevention mechanism is the presence of the hydrogen in the system, since it has been found that even using the system with no oxygen or virtually no oxygen present (trace amounts that are unmeasurable by present equipment and techniques) results in a hillock-free aluminum-containing film. It is also believed that the presence of oxygen in the film is primarily responsible for a smooth (less rough) aluminum-containing film, since roughness generally decreases with an increase in oxygen content in the film.
It is understood that the sputter deposition system of the present invention will usually always have a trace amount of oxygen. This trace amount of oxygen will be incorporated into the aluminum containing film in the presence of hydrogen, even though the very low amount of oxygen within the aluminum film cannot be detected by present analysis equipment. This trace amount of oxygen may come from two potential sources: incomplete chamber evacuation and/or inherent trace oxygen contamination in the argon or hydrogen gas feeds. The first source, incomplete chamber evacuation, comes from the fact that no vacuum is a perfect vacuum. There will also be some residual gas in the system, whether a purge gas or atmospheric gas, no matter how extreme the vacuum evacuation. The second source is a result of inherent trace gas contamination in industrial grade gases, such as the argon and hydrogen used in the present invention. The oxygen impurity content specification for the argon gas used is 1 ppm and the hydrogen gas is 3 ppm. Thus, a high flow rate of the argon and hydrogen into the system will present more trace oxygen to be scavenged from the gas streams and integrated into the aluminum-containing film. Therefore, even though present equipment cannot measure the content of the oxygen in the aluminum-containing film when it exists below 0.1%, a trace amount below 0.1% may be incorporated into the aluminum-containing film.
A control sample of an aluminum film coating on a semiconductor substrate was formed in a manner exemplary of prior art processes (i.e., no hydrogen gas present) using a Kurdex-DC sputtering system to deposit aluminum from an aluminum target onto a soda-lime glass substrate.
The substrate was loaded in a load lock chamber of the sputtering system and evacuated to about 5×10−3 torr. The load lock was opened and a main deposition chamber was evacuated to about 10−7 torr before the substrate was moved into the main deposition chamber for the sputtering process. The evacuation was throttled and specific gases were delivered into the main deposition chamber. In the control deposition, argon gas alone was used for the sputtering process. Once a predetermined amount of argon gas stabilized (about 5 minutes) in the main deposition chamber, about 2 kilowatts of direct current power was applied between a cathode (in this case the aluminum target) and the anode (substrate) to create the plasma, as discussed above. The substrate was moved in front of the plasma from between about 8 and 10 minutes to form an aluminum-containing film having a thickness of about 1800 angstroms.
Table 1 discloses the operating parameters of the sputtering equipment and the characteristics of the aluminum film formed by this process.
TABLE 1
Control Sample
Sputtering Process Parameters
Power (KW)
2
Pressure (mtorr)
2.05
Gas Flow (sccm)
Argon = 90
Characterization Parameters and Properties
Thickness (Å)
1800
Stress (dyne/cm2) (compressive)
−4.94 × 108 (C)
Roughness (Å)
1480
(unannealed)
2040
(annealed)
Resistivity (μΩ-cm)
approx. 2.7
Grain Size (Å)
1000–1200
Hillock Density
approx. 2 to 5 × 109/m2
The measurements for the characterization parameters and properties were taken as follows: thickness—Stylus Profilometer and scanning electron microscopy; stress—Tencor FLX using laser scanning; roughness—atomic force microscopy; resistivity—two point probe; grain size—scanning electron microscopy; and hillock density—scanning electron microscopy.
Two test samples (test sample 1 and test sample 2) of an aluminum film coating on a semiconductor substrate were fabricated using the method of the present invention. These two test samples were also formed using the Kurdex-DC sputtering system with an aluminum target depositing on a soda-lime glass substrate.
The operating procedures of the sputtering system were essentially the same as the control sample, as discussed above, with the exception that the gas content vented into the main deposition chamber included argon and hydrogen. Additionally, the pressure in the main deposition chamber during the deposition and the thickness of the aluminum-containing film was varied from the control sample pressure for each of the test samples.
Table 2 discloses the operating parameters of the sputtering equipment and the characteristics of the two aluminum films formed by the process of the present invention.
TABLE 2
Test Sample 1
Test Sample 2
Sputtering Process Parameters
Power (KW)
2
2
Pressure (mtorr)
2.4
2.5
Gas Flow (sccm)
Argon =
90
Argon =
90
Hydrogen =
200
Hydrogen =
400
Characterization Parameters
and Properties
Thickness (Å)
1600
1500
Stress (dyne/cm2)
−1.12 × 108 (C)
−5.6 × 108 (C)
(compressive)
Roughness (Å) (after
800
540
annealing)
Resistivity (μΩ-cm)
5.5
6.0
Grain Size (Å)
1000–1200
1000–1200
Hillock Density
no hillocks present
no hillocks present
A number of aluminum-containing films were made at different ratios of Ar/H2 and various system pressures were measured for oxygen content within the films. The power at 2 KW. The oxygen content was measured by XPS (x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). The results of the measurements are shown in Table 3.
TABLE 3
Sample
Ar/H2
Pressure
Oxygen Content
Number
(sccm)
Ar/H2 Ratio
(millitorr)
Range (atomic %)
1
90/200
0.450
2.40
5–10
2
90/400
0.225
2.50
5–10
3
50/90
0.556
1.27
3
4
90/90
1.000
2.15
<1%
An XPS depth profile for sample 3 (Ar/H2 (sccm)=50/90, pressure=1.27) is illustrated in
Having thus described in detail preferred embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that the invention defined by the appended claims is not to be limited by particular details set forth in the above description, as many apparent variations are possible without departing from the spirit or scope thereof.
Raina, Kanwal K., Wells, David H.
| Patent | Priority | Assignee | Title |
| 9548349, | Jun 25 2014 | International Business Machines Corporation | Semiconductor device with metal extrusion formation |
| 9825119, | Jun 25 2014 | International Business Machines Corporation | Semiconductor device with metal extrusion formation |
| 9825120, | Jun 25 2014 | International Business Machines Corporation | Semiconductor device with metal extrusion formation |
| Patent | Priority | Assignee | Title |
| 3631304, | |||
| 3654526, | |||
| 3717564, | |||
| 3904505, | |||
| 4302498, | Oct 28 1980 | Intersil Corporation | Laminated conducting film on an integrated circuit substrate and method of forming the laminate |
| 4348886, | Nov 19 1980 | Intersil Corporation | Monitor for oxygen concentration in aluminum-based films |
| 4376688, | Apr 03 1981 | Xerox Corporation | Method for producing semiconductor films |
| 4666808, | Apr 01 1983 | Kyocera Corp. | Amorphous silicon electrophotographic sensitive member |
| 4726983, | Feb 20 1985 | Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha | Homogeneous fine grained metal film on substrate and manufacturing method thereof |
| 4834942, | Jan 29 1988 | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE, AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY | Elevated temperature aluminum-titanium alloy by powder metallurgy process |
| 4845050, | Apr 02 1984 | Intersil Corporation | Method of making mo/tiw or w/tiw ohmic contacts to silicon |
| 4871617, | Apr 02 1984 | Intersil Corporation | Ohmic contacts and interconnects to silicon and method of making same |
| 5036382, | Feb 22 1989 | Yamaha Corporation | Semiconductor device having a multi-level wiring structure |
| 5096279, | Jul 31 1984 | Texas Instruments Incorporated | Spatial light modulator and method |
| 5148259, | Aug 19 1986 | Fujitsu Limited | Semiconductor device having thin film wiring layer of aluminum containing carbon |
| 5243202, | Apr 25 1990 | Casio Computer Co., Ltd. | Thin-film transistor and a liquid crystal matrix display device using thin-film transistors of this type |
| 5328873, | Sep 09 1989 | CANON KUBUSHIKI KAISHA | Process for forming deposited film by use of alkyl aluminum hydride |
| 5358901, | Mar 01 1993 | Freescale Semiconductor, Inc | Process for forming an intermetallic layer |
| 5367179, | Apr 25 1990 | Casio Computer Co., Ltd. | Thin-film transistor having electrodes made of aluminum, and an active matrix panel using same |
| 5387546, | Jun 22 1992 | Canon Sales Co., Inc.; Alcan-Tech Co., Ltd.; Semiconductor Process Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Method for manufacturing a semiconductor device |
| 5393699, | Sep 26 1989 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Deposited film formation method utilizing selective deposition by use of alkyl aluminum hydride |
| 5403762, | Jun 30 1993 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Method of fabricating a TFT |
| 5416351, | Oct 30 1991 | Intersil Corporation | Electrostatic discharge protection |
| 5434104, | Mar 02 1994 | VLSI Technology, Inc. | Method of using corrosion prohibiters in aluminum alloy films |
| 5449640, | Jun 13 1989 | SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Limited | Fabricating electrical contacts in semiconductor devices |
| 5453405, | Jan 18 1991 | Kopin Corporation | Method of making light emitting diode bars and arrays |
| 5475267, | Apr 26 1991 | Renesas Electronics Corporation | Multilayer interconnection structure for a semiconductor device |
| 5486939, | Apr 28 1994 | Xerox Corporation | Thin-film structure with insulating and smoothing layers between crossing conductive lines |
| 5491347, | Apr 28 1994 | Thomson Licensing | Thin-film structure with dense array of binary control units for presenting images |
| 5518805, | Apr 28 1994 | Thomson Licensing | Hillock-free multilayer metal lines for high performance thin film structures |
| 5572046, | Jun 30 1993 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Semiconductor device having at least two thin film transistors |
| 5580468, | Jul 11 1991 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Method of fabricating head for recording apparatus |
| 5583075, | May 13 1990 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Method for producing a semiconductor device with a particular source/drain and gate structure |
| 5594280, | Oct 08 1987 | Anelva Corporation | Method of forming a thin film and apparatus of forming a metal thin film utilizing temperature controlling means |
| 5739549, | Jun 14 1994 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Thin film transistor having offset region |
| 5929527, | Jul 16 1996 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Electronic device |
| 5942767, | Nov 21 1995 | SAMSUNG DISPLAY CO , LTD | Thin film transistors including silicide layer and multilayer conductive electrodes |
| 5969423, | Jul 15 1997 | U S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT | Aluminum-containing films derived from using hydrogen and oxygen gas in sputter deposition |
| 6107688, | Jul 15 1997 | U S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT | Aluminum-containing films derived from using hydrogen and oxygen gas in sputter deposition |
| 6130119, | Sep 25 1997 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | Conductive film-attached substrate and method of manufacturing the same |
| 6194783, | Jul 15 1997 | U S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT | Method of using hydrogen gas in sputter deposition of aluminum-containing films and aluminum-containing films derived therefrom |
| 6222271, | Jul 15 1997 | U S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT | Method of using hydrogen gas in sputter deposition of aluminum-containing films and aluminum-containing films derived therefrom |
| EP316950, | |||
| EP352333, | |||
| EP855451, | |||
| JP10178193, | |||
| JP1169759, | |||
| JP267763, | |||
| JP5994439, |
| Executed on | Assignor | Assignee | Conveyance | Frame | Reel | Doc |
| Nov 06 2002 | Micron Technology, Inc. | (assignment on the face of the patent) | / | |||
| Apr 26 2016 | Micron Technology, Inc | U S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT | SECURITY INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 038669 | /0001 | |
| Apr 26 2016 | Micron Technology, Inc | MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC , AS COLLATERAL AGENT | PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT | 038954 | /0001 | |
| Apr 26 2016 | Micron Technology, Inc | U S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT | CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE REPLACE ERRONEOUSLY FILED PATENT #7358718 WITH THE CORRECT PATENT #7358178 PREVIOUSLY RECORDED ON REEL 038669 FRAME 0001 ASSIGNOR S HEREBY CONFIRMS THE SECURITY INTEREST | 043079 | /0001 | |
| Jun 29 2018 | U S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT | Micron Technology, Inc | RELEASE BY SECURED PARTY SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 047243 | /0001 | |
| Jul 31 2019 | MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC , AS COLLATERAL AGENT | Micron Technology, Inc | RELEASE BY SECURED PARTY SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 050937 | /0001 |
| Date | Maintenance Fee Events |
| Apr 27 2006 | ASPN: Payor Number Assigned. |
| Jun 09 2010 | M1551: Payment of Maintenance Fee, 4th Year, Large Entity. |
| Jul 02 2014 | M1552: Payment of Maintenance Fee, 8th Year, Large Entity. |
| Aug 27 2018 | REM: Maintenance Fee Reminder Mailed. |
| Feb 11 2019 | EXP: Patent Expired for Failure to Pay Maintenance Fees. |
| Date | Maintenance Schedule |
| Jan 09 2010 | 4 years fee payment window open |
| Jul 09 2010 | 6 months grace period start (w surcharge) |
| Jan 09 2011 | patent expiry (for year 4) |
| Jan 09 2013 | 2 years to revive unintentionally abandoned end. (for year 4) |
| Jan 09 2014 | 8 years fee payment window open |
| Jul 09 2014 | 6 months grace period start (w surcharge) |
| Jan 09 2015 | patent expiry (for year 8) |
| Jan 09 2017 | 2 years to revive unintentionally abandoned end. (for year 8) |
| Jan 09 2018 | 12 years fee payment window open |
| Jul 09 2018 | 6 months grace period start (w surcharge) |
| Jan 09 2019 | patent expiry (for year 12) |
| Jan 09 2021 | 2 years to revive unintentionally abandoned end. (for year 12) |